Just prior to handover from our predecessors, the BJPIR had a major uptick in impact factor: from 0.98 to 1.56. That means we are ranked 32nd (of 161) amongst Political Science journals and 16th (out of 85) IR journals. It also means that BJPIR is now, by any measure, the world’s leading journal on UK politics. We have therefore inherited a journal that is in extremely good shape and we pay tribute to the work of the previous editorial team at Queen’s University in Belfast.

This good fortune means that we are likely to see an increase in submissions, so we expect to be busy. We also inherit the journal at a critical time in British politics. We have had a referendum in Scotland and a UK general election. We are about to have the devolved elections in 2016 and a referendum on the UK’s EU membership. There will be no shortage of topics for scholars to analyse.

We want to retain and enhance the BJPIR’s position as the world’s leading British politics journal. However, we also want to increase its international outlook by getting the message out to non-UK authors that this is a great place to publish work on wider topics in political science and international relations.

Our editorial team is made up of an excellent group of colleagues from PIR: Liz Cripps, Iain Hardie, Ailsa Henderson, Charlie Jeffery, Julie Kaarbo, Fiona Mackay and James Mitchell. We are delighted that we are able to draw on their expertise and we are looking forward to the challenge of taking the BJPIR forward.